YOUR WATER FOOTPRINT

Water is abundant in Wisconsin, but conservation is still necess

People look at Lake Michigan and it looks like an ocean,” said Pat
Henderson, deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR). “And they
wonder why they should conserve water.” But Henderson said that concerns about
the availability of Great Lakes water are real.

He noted that the Great
Lakes account for 20% of the world’s fresh water—70% exists in the polar ice
cap—but climate change, industry, rising population levels and a lack of
awareness are putting pressure on this critical natural resource.

“We
want to make sure that we continue to have a lot of it,” Henderson said. “We
shouldn’t take water for granted.” That’s why the newly enacted Great Lakes
Water Compact, in addition to banning long-range water diversions to other parts
of the country, also requires Wisconsin communities to conserve water.

All
communities within the Great Lakes basin—that includes Milwaukee County, as well
as parts of Kenosha, Racine, Ozaukee and Waukesha—will have to create water
conservation programs, while communities outside the basin—New Berlin and the
city of Waukesha, for example—will have to implement conservation policies
before they ask to take water from the Great Lakes and pipe it to their
communities. Communities outside of the basin that don’t want to utilize Great
Lakes water will be encouraged to voluntarily establish water conservation
programs.

“Our goal is to sustainably manage Great Lakes water,”
Henderson said. But first, Henderson noted, the state needs to
find out how much water is being used—“we don’t even have that information right
now,” he said. Then, the DNR—with lots of public input, Henderson promised—must
develop rules for water conservation programs that each community can implement,
based on their own needs and resources.

“As we see the level of the
lakes go down, we want to ensure that communities are good stewards of the
water,” Henderson said. Already, communities in Waukesha County are restricting
lawn watering during the summer to ease pressure on the available water there.

Understanding Your Water
FootprintUnder the new compact,
municipalities’ water works will be in charge of the water conservation
programs. But individuals can also be good stewards of our water resources, of
course. And a new concept—the water footprint—can help each individual
understand how much water he or she uses every day.

The water footprint
is built on the carbon footprint concept, which measures the amount of
greenhouse gases produced by various activities, such as driving solo, flying
and eating food produced in far-off lands. Similarly, the water footprint
encompasses all of the water required to produce the food, goods and services
used by any individual, community or nation. The water footprint of the United States, for example, is almost four
times that of China’s, and twice the size of
Japan’s.

“The water footprint is an effort to use a
concept that people are already familiar with,” said Jessica Roach, national
water policy coordinator for the environmental advocacy group Food & Water
Watch. Roach’s organization—along with Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, the
nonprofit environmental organization GRACE and the Johns Hopkins Center for a
Livable Future—have developed a water footprint calculator at www.h2oconserve.org so that individuals
can identify how much water they use every day, as well as how they can reduce
their water consumption.

Scott Cullen, executive director of GRACE, said
that many consumers don’t realize that common products contain “virtual water”
that represents water imported from another part of the world. “You’re taking
that water and bringing it here,” Cullen said.

And that water can have
serious implications in other parts of the world or water-challenged
agricultural states such as California. Cullen said that in drier areas of the
globe, streams can be diverted for agriculture, dams often displace people from
their homes, cash crops are grown instead of food crops and food prices can rise
because of a scarcity of local produce.

A Few TipsThe H2O Conserve Web site
also includes a host of tips on water conservation. Not surprisingly, reducing
one’s water footprint often leads to a reduced carbon footprint, because less
water and fossil fuels will be consumed through the course of one’s day.

“Just because you have a lot of it, that doesn’t mean that it’s
limitless,” Cullen said. Cullen noted that an easy way to reduce one’s water
footprint is to buy locally produced food that is grown in a sustainable manner,
which cuts down on virtual water and fossil fuel-dependent transportation.

He also advised people to limit the amount of meat they eat— especially
beef. In fact, each pound of beef represents an astounding 1,500 gallons of
water. “Raising animals is incredibly water intensive,” Cullen said.

Roach, of Food & Water Watch, urged consumers to stop buying bottled
water, especially in places like Milwaukee, where tap water is cheap and safe,
because so much water and other precious resources go into the production of the
plastic bottle.

According to the H2O Conserve Web site, “It takes more
than 47 million gallons of oil to produce plastic water bottles for Americans
every year. Eliminating those bottles would be equivalent to taking 100,000 cars
off the road and preventing 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide from being
released in the air.”

What’s more, 86% of these plastic bottles are
thrown away— not recycled—ensuring that they live on long after their contents
are emptied. Bill Guiney, program manager for Renewable Energy Solutions at
Johnson Controls, said that installing solar-powered water heaters in one’s home
is an easy way to save energy and water.

“Solar energy and water
conservation should be put together,” Guiney said. He noted that savings can be
significant, and solar-run water heaters often pay for themselves after six to
10 years. “This is something we need,” Guiney said. “If we’re going to become
truly energy independent, it’s got to start in our own homes.”